Fireworks
by Rajiinn
Summary: Ichigo, Rukia, Ishida, Chad, Orihime and Renji take a night off to visit a travelling fairground. Can Ichigo find the perfect moment to open up and tell Rukia that he has feelings for her? Contains IchiRuki
1. Chapter 1

So yeah, I had a spare day and felt like writing. I'm planning on making this a three chapter long short story and this chapter is more of a scene-setter than anything. It doesn't take place in any particular arc. I don't own Bleach; all characters, names, copyrighted materials etc within are the property of their respective owners, has some moderate language language in it, now that's out of the way I hope you enjoy it.

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It was a going to be a good night tonight. No hollows, no Kon, no fighting. Although the last one was questionable since Renji was also coming along Ichigo thought as he was walked down the street. He was on his way to Ishida's house where everyone was meeting up since it was closest to the fairground that they were going to. He kicked a pebble out of annoyance as he was walking; Rukia should have been walking with him. She wasn't though because of his father giving him the usual "use protection but also give me grandchildren" talk. After she realized that Isshin wasn't letting Ichigo leave without thoroughly embarrassing him first she thought it best to just go on ahead.

Ichigo furrowed his brow as he thought about it. In his opinion he was pretty sure that he made the point that he was going for a night out with his friends clear, and that it was difficult to confuse it with him going to an orgy with his friends. It appeared that his father didn't have the difficulty in confusing the two that he did.

He thought that Rukia and the others were probably all at Ishida's house already and just waiting for him now. He could just picture Renji, gloating about how a one legged hollow could have gotten to Ishida's house quicker. He also pictured Rukia standing there. Before she left (and before his father had started his ranting) he took a good look at what she was wearing: a light blue t-shirt, black boots and a slightly baggy pair of jeans that were too big for her. He smirked slightly at the time, earning him a disapproving glance from Rukia, but truth be told he was used to her either being in her shihakusho, her school uniform, or his sister's blue blouse, so seeing her in some new and more ...interesting... clothes was a change he could get used.

He had been thinking about Rukia a lot lately.

"You're late." Renji called out.

"I know, I know"

"You walk too slow. Even a one-legged hol– " started Renji with a smug grin.

"Don't start." Ichigo growled as he went to stand by Rukia.

"Right, now that Ichigo's here we can go." Ishida announced, "Me, Chad and Orihime have been waiting out here for almost fifteen minutes. And don't forget we need to go and look around before the fireworks display starts."

"Yeah, sorry" Ichigo apologized, "My father was being his usual self" he continued with a scowl.

"Let's start walking, it's getting cold." said Orihime as a brisk wind blew across.

Chad seemed indifferent.

* * *

><p>A short walk later and they arrived at the fairground. It was a travelling fair that went from place to place and wouldn't be in Karakura town for very long, but nevertheless it was still fairly big. Orihime was the first one to enter the fair, letting out and audible "wow" as she happily flitted back and forth between the stalls by the entrance. The other five strolled through after her with Ichigo leading. He wandered along to one of the stalls, wondering if he should buy a chocolate ice cream cone.<p>

"I'm going to win this easily!" grinned Renji as he handed one of the stall owner's a fee.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked up, "What are you doing?"

"Playing a game. All I've got to do is throw this ball at the coconut" he replied as he lined up his shot, " and when I knock the coconut off of the stand I win a prize."

"Sounds easy. I'll have a go after you've had your throws."

"Damn! I missed!" cursed Renji.

"Well your not going to hit it if you throw like that." Ichigo said casually.

"It was because you were talking!"

The others heard the commotion and came over to see what was happening.

"What're you guys arguing about now?" Rukia asked.

"Renji's playing some ball game." Ichigo answered, "Badly."

"Shut up! You'll put me off!" snarled Renji.

Renji threw the ball again, this time almost hitting the stall owner, making him jump and drop the newspaper he was reading.

"Hey watch it!"

"It's your own damn fault! You shouldn't have been standing in the way!"

"Just for that your not having your last throw! Damn punk…"

Renji mumbled something under his breath and stormed off. Orihime had a concerned look on her face, which Rukia addressed by saying "He'll be okay. He's just having a sulk because he didn't win."

"I heard that!" shouted Renji.

Ichigo chuckled quietly to himself. Rukia noticed and gave him a warm smile. He smiled back and quickly proceeded in giving the stall owner the money before Ishida or Chad saw them. He didn't want them to think he'd gone soft in his time off from being a Shinigami.

"Okay…" he said, more to himself than anything. " Lets do this!".

"Good luck Kurosaki-kun!" piped Orihime.

"Thanks," replied Ichigo confidently. He looked back and gave Rukia a cheeky grin "But I'm not going to need it."

Rukia gave a toothy grin in return. "If you say things like that you'll jinx yourself."

Orihime noticed the two of them grinning at each other and quietly smiled to herself.

Ichigo picked up the ball and carefully aimed it at the coconut. As he was doing so he knew everyone was watching him, but even so it was almost as if he could _feel _Rukia's gaze on him. It made the hairs on the back of it's neck prickle and stand on end. He liked it.

He threw the ball and missed by inches.

"Nearly" said Ishida before diving into an explaination about how he shouldn't feel like he's throwing it, he should feel like he's "letting it go".

"Yeah, yeah." Said Ichigo in response as he picked up another ball. "That's great and all but I prefer doing it my way."

He threw it, and again missed by inches.

"Damn…" he muttered. His usual scowl was becoming increasing pronounced.

"I'll do this," he thought to himself. "If nothing else, just to prove to everyone that I'm better Renji". He was of course eager to prove to everyone that he was better than Renji, but he was more concerned about proving this to one person in particular.

"I told you that you'd jinx yourself." Rukia sighed in an all-knowing tone.

"Yeah? In that case…" Ichigo calmly replied as he picked up the last ball from the stall. "Jinx _this_!" he shouted as without warning he launched the ball at the coconut, hitting it square in the middle. "Yes!" Ichigo thought triumphantly to himself as Orihime let out a celebratory whooping sound. However, the coconut just sat there.

"That's your three throws up" the stall owner said, still reading his newspaper. "Better luck next time."

"WHAT!" Ichigo practically exploded. "I hit that thing! It didn't fall off!"

"Not my problem."

"The game must be rigged" said Ishida insightfully.

"DAMN YOU! I WANT MY MONEY BACK!" Ichigo yelled demandingly.

"Like I said, it's not my problem."

Whilst Ichigo was busy screaming at the stall owner, Ishida had an idea.

"Hey Chad, how would you like to win a prize? I'm pretty sure you could knock it off." He asked.

"….Sure." Chad replied.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out some change which he put on the edge of the stall before picking up a ball. He stood next to the still-screaming Ichigo and took aim.

Ichigo fell silent as the stall-owner slowly turned from his paper to look through the hole that had been created centimeters away from his head by the ball, which had not only knocked the coconut off of it's post, but with an ear-splitting crunch proceeded in partially demolishing the back of his stall.

"oohhhh..."

That was the only sound he could make in response.

A few moments passed before he whipped round and announced that Chad had won a prize.

"The young man with the ginger hair can also have a prize. The post must have been faulty…heh" he laughed nervously.

"About damn time" Ichigo grumbled.

"Hmmm… most of the prizes are stuffed toys." Observed Ishida.

Ichigo looked around at the stuffed toys. They all looked pretty disgusting in his opinion, most of them had giant, over-exaggerated expressions on them. He wondered what kind of moron could possibly want any of these as he looked from toy to toy, looking for something half-decent that he could take back. Maybe he could give to Kon. He was mid-thought about Kon taking some ridiculous chicken-ish looking toy back to his lair and making it his bride when Rukia let out an excited gasp.

"Wow! It's a rabbit!" she said, pointing to one of the toys. "It looks like chappy!"

"It has terrible stitching…" Ishida pointed out.

Ichigo groaned.

"Chad, what are you getting?"

Chad held up the stuffed toy. It was large parakeet with a sombrero unceremoniously perched on it's head.

Ichigo stared at it for a moment.

"It…It suits you."

In the middle of Ishida's thorough examination and criticism of every toy on view, Orihime had an idea of her own. She walked over to Ichigo who was now looking hatefully at the prizes that he had to pick from, and whispered to him:

"You should get the rabbit as a gift for Rukia!"

"Huh?"

"She likes rabbits so it be nice if you got her it as a present."

Ichigo stopped and thought for a minute.

He could get her the present and going by her constant remarks of how it was "sooo cute" she'd definitely like it. But at the same time how would she react to him getting it for her? He wasn't exactly forthcoming about his feelings for her, and he didn't have much in the way of hints from her that she saw him as anything more than a friend. She'd see right through him if he got it for her; he didn't exactly go handing out gifts to people for no reason. And what if she refused to take it? Then not only would he be left looking like a idiot but he'd also be left with a giant novelty rabbit.

Orihime was still waiting for an answer.

"Yeah… I guess I could…"

"Great!" Orihime smiled, "I'll go talk to take her attention off of it so you can make it a surprise!"

He looked once more at the rabbit then uncertainly told the stall owner that he'd take it. He heard Orihime in the background:

"Rukiiaaa….."

"Yeah?"

"Wouldn't it be nice if Kurosaki-kun got that rabbit for you?"

"Oh he'd never do that" she replied, and then in a quieter voice said "This is Ichigo we're talking about."

Cheeky bitch, Ichigo laughed to himself as he took the rabbit from the stall owner. He wasn't _that_ selfish. He took a deep breath and started walking over to Rukia.

He hoped he knew what was doing.

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Well that's the first chapter finished. If you feel like dropping a review or suggestion then please do, any feedback would be apreciated. I'll be starting the next chapter soon although getting reviews would encourage me to start it sooner ;) . The next chapter will contain more IchiRuki than this one and will also be less subtle. Not that it was particually subtle in this chapter, but you know what i mean!


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter's finished, I aimed to give it a feel as if it is building up to something, not sure how well I did that but I gave it a damn good try.

Enjoy.

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"Well, I guess I'd better do this. I can't exactly return the toy…" Ichigo thought to himself. He felt a little queasy, "It must be my nerves." He reassured himself.

This really said something to him. All those times he was fighting, whether it was against hollows, captains from soul society, or anything for that matter, it didn't make him even half as nervous as this was.

He dragged his feet moodily against the ground as he was walking so he could watch the flecks of dirt spray over his shoes. He didn't even know why he was so nervous about it.

He looked up at Rukia happily talking away to Orihime. The neon lights of the fairground attractions in the background seemed to make Rukia come alive, the colours reflected vividly off of the side of her petite cheek as she smiled with soft, inviting lips; her violet eyes twinkling in the night as the soft sound of music being played in fairground tenderly caressed her and the night's breeze blew past ruffling her baggy jeans and making her raven hair wave soundlessly in the moonlight. The scene seemed to be slowed to a gentle waltz just for him as he drifted towards her.

She just seemed so…. perfect. There just wasn't any words that could truly do her justice.

With some difficulty he hid the oversized toy rabbit behind his back and mustered his courage before clearing his throat.

Here it goes…

"Hey…"

"Hey." Rukia replied with a smile.

She only smiles like that for me, Ichigo thought to himself. With everyone else she seemed so much more serious and even a little cold at times. She used to be like that with him too, but now…

"Rukia… I, uh…"

Now she was always so relaxed whenever she was with him. She was still the same old Rukia; even he wasn't safe from occasionally being on the receiving end of her abuse, but it wasn't without a good reason. The soft smile of small Shinigami standing in front of him flooded Ichigo with confidence.

"I got this for you!" he declared with his usual arrogance as he revealed the rabbit from behind his back.

"Oh…" she replied with a surprised expression.

She hesitated for a moment, then took the toy from him and held it between her arms, it's whiskered face looking up at Ichigo in a dopey fashion.

"Thank you Ichigo" she smiled shyly.

For a few moments the two of them stood quietly gazing into each others eyes causing Rukia to blush slightly. Ichigo silently wished to himself that moments like these would come along more often.

"What the hell's that meant to be?" Renji inquired loudly as he lifted one of rabbit's ears, "It looks cheap as shit."

"RENJI !"

Rukia hit his hand away from the toy. While Rukia and Ichigo were busy getting lost in each others eyes, Renji had returned from his sulk and thanks to Rukia was now wearing the ice cream cone that he'd had just bought.

"What did you do that for!" Renji spluttered angrily.

"Leave the rabbit alone! It's my rabbit!" Rukia retorted, turning her back on Renji so he couldn't make fun of her present.

"Ok, ok, I get it." He muttered as he wiped bits of ice cream off of his face and clothes. "Why are you so protective over some dumb stuffed animal anyway?"

Rukia didn't answer this; she simply walked angrily away from Renji to go and find out from the others where they were going next.

"What was that about?"

"Dunno." Replied Ichigo, stunned slightly. "I don't think she likes you picking on the rabbit."

"You think? Dumbass."

"What did you say!"

* * *

><p>The others meanwhile were now in the midst of deciding what they should do next.<p>

"There's still a while before the display starts. Maybe we should get some food?" Orihime wondered.

"I hear they do things called "Toffee apples" here." Added a now calm Rukia, "We could try some of them."

"Apples and toffee?" Orihime said pulling a face, "That sounds like it would be horrible. Apples and custard were really nice when I had them together, I'll ask and see if they have any."

"I think we should go on some of the rides before we get food," Ishida suggested, "We don't want to get sick. Besides, I always wanted to go on the Waltzers"

A few minutes later and after Ichigo and Renji had finished their pointless argument, the group had walked further into the fairground where the rides were. The various rides had dance music blaring out along with illuminations which lit up the night's sky with flashes of neon colourings. Ichigo was wondering what he should go on first when Ishida reminded him that it was the Waltzers they were going on.

Orihime looked uncertainly at ride.

"I'm not sure that I'll go on this one." She said as she watched how fast the cars were spinning, "It looks very violent."

"It's okay, I'll sit this one out too." Rukia replied comfortingly, "I can't go on it while I'm holding my rabbit anyway. I'll hold your parakeet for you if you like Chad."

"Sure." Chad said simply and handed his toy to Rukia.

"Uh… I'll sit this one out as well." Ichigo stated.

"Huh? Why?" Renji asked questioningly.

"Oh… well… I get travel sick and the spinning will make me ill." Ichigo lied.

"What? It's not even that fast, look!" Renji said as he pointed at the wildly spinning car, "I love going on these things, and your damn well coming as well!"

"But-"

"Stop making excuses!" shouted Renji as he grabbed Ichigo by the back of the neck and dragged him over to the car that Chad and Ishida were already strapped into.

"Fine!" Ichigo shouted back as he climbed into the car and strapped himself in, "But if I throw up, I'm aiming for you!"

"Idiot!" Renji yelled as the ride started moving, "What kind of Shinigami would be intimidated of something so-….."

Renji fell silent as the ride started picking up speed.

"…"

"!"

Renji was now screaming at the top of his voice.

"Huh?" said Orihime as she stood on the sidelines and watched, confused. "I thought Renji said he liked these scary fairground rides?"

"He's never been on one. He just said that to sound manly." Rukia sighed, with Renji still screaming in the background.

"Although if nothing else his scream is manly." She continued with a disapproving frown. Orihime let out a small giggle in agreement.

After a few minutes the ride had stopped. Ichigo, Chad and Ishida were thoroughly dizzy and on account of Renji, slightly deaf. The four of them unstrapped themselves and staggered out of the car.

"ARRGGHH! ARRGGHH! HOW DO YOU LIKE IT!" Ichigo shouted.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Renji shouted back.

"AARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH! THAT'S WHAT I SAID!"

"Ummm… you two?"

"WHAT?" Renji and Ichigo turned to shout at Ishida.

"People are staring."

Ichigo looked around at the faces of shocked passersby. He and Renji exchanged quick glances before moodily trudging off the ride.

* * *

><p>When the boys head's had stopped spinning, Orihime suggested that they go on something more relaxing.<p>

"We can go the umbrellas," she said, already walking off in the direction of the ride, "They're not as fast as the Waltzers!"

"What do the umbrellas do?" Renji asked apprehensively.

"Well, they're these big umbrellas with cars that you sit in, and when the ride starts the whole ride tilts upwards, and then the umbrellas are lifted off the ground and start going round in biiiiig circles- "

"No," Renji started as he watched Orihime's hand movements demonstrating the umbrellas, "No more… spinning…"

"That's okay, you don't have to come if you don't want to. But me and Rukia-kun didn't go on the Waltzers so you can hold the toys whilst we go on the ride!"

"Wait, wha-"

"Shut up and hold these" Rukia said as she gave him the rabbit and parakeet. "And no playing with my rabbit." She added with an icy stare.

* * *

><p>After they'd paid the fee to the ride owner, everyone apart from Renji got onto the ride. Ichigo and Rukia went in the first car with Ishida and Orihime in the car behind them. Chad had to sit in a car on his own, but he didn't seem to mind.<p>

Once all the cars had somebody in them, the ride's booth started to play a loud song and the ride started moving. The umbrella Ichigo was in started to climb up towards the sky in a circle before descending to floor again and repeating it's cycle. Orihime was right, Ichigo thought to himself, this is a much more relaxing ride. As the umbrella climbed up again, he looked out across the fairground. He could see for miles when it was at the top, but before long it had gone too low to see out of the fairground. Ichigo smiled, safe in the knowledge that even when he could see for miles, the only thing in all those miles that he wanted to look at was sitting right next to him. He turned to look at Rukia. She looked so happy and carefree; it was a farcry from days gone by when they were out hunting down hollows. She saw him and gave him toothy grin which he returned with an equally toothy grin. She turned back around and gave an excited but nearly inaudible laugh as the umbrella rose over it's peak. Ichigo didn't know why, maybe it was seeing her smiling and laughing like this, but he thought he'd tell Rukia now.

"Rukia!" Ichigo shouted. She didn't look the first time so he shouted again: "Rukia!"

"What?" she shouted back.

"I love you!"

"What?"

"I love you!"

"I can't hear you!" she shouted back, pointing at her ears, "The music's too loud!"

Dammit, Ichigo thought to himself. This seemed like a good time to do it as well since everyone was out of earshot.

Shame Rukia was out of earshot as well.

A couple of revolutions later and the ride tilted back to their original angle and the umbrellas were slowly lowered back down to the ground. As Ichigo and Rukia were unbuckling themselves the music stopped and Orihime came racing up to them.

"Wow! That was amazing wasn't it!" Orihime said excitedly, "I've never been on any amusement rides before!"

"Yeah it was good." Rukia laughed. "Would've been better if somebody didn't turn into Mr Grumpy towards the end of it." she added as she gave Ichigo a gentle elbow in the side.

"Oh, right," he said as he tried to remove the scowl that had crept over his face. "Sorry. The music was too loud…."

"Yeah it was a bit." Rukia agreed as Orihime went to ask Chad what he thought of the ride. "So what were you trying to tell up there?"

"Oh, nothing important." Ichigo said trying desperately to keep the scowl from taking over his face, "I'll just tell you later."

"Sure." Rukia smiled, and with a playful poke to his stomach added: "I'll hold you to it."

"I bet you will…" Ichigo thought silently.

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So that was chapter two, any suggestions are welcome. I think I made Renji ruin the moment quite spectacularly there ;) . As with the first chapter, more reviews will mean I work harder and will mean you get to read the next chapter sooner.

Many thanks to the people who reviewed the first chapter, I hope you found the second chapter a fair reward for your input =]


	3. Chapter 3

This is the third and final chapter, not sure if IchiRuki fans will love me or hate me for this one since I've done things a little differently, although the first one is preferable ;).

Anyhow, enjoy!

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Ichigo had loved Rukia for a while now, not that he'd ever been able to tell her that. He'd felt something for her, something that made him want to be more than just friends, for much longer. But in the last couple of months there had been fewer hollows for him to chase after, which left him with time to think.

He'd usually think about all kinds of random stuff. It could range from ways he could beat strong people such as Zaraki or Byakuya, to how his father drove him insane with his antics. Every now and then he'd be thinking about how his life had changed since he had become a Shinigami, about how it had changed since he'd met Rukia.

Rukia…

There he was thinking about Rukia again, just like that. At first he thought about her as much as he thought about anything else. But as the days grew into weeks, and the weeks into months, he found himself thinking about Rukia more and more.

Nowadays, he'd be rarely be thinking about anything else.

"Attention! The fireworks display will be starting in ten minutes." A nearby speaker blared out.

"Not long now." Orihime said excitedly, "I can't wait!"

"I know! It's supposed to be a big display this year." Ishida stated, "We should go on the Ferris wheel so we can get a good view."

"Good idea." Ichigo agreed, "We should probably start heading there soon or else our carriage won't be that high when the display starts."

* * *

><p>They arrived shortly at the ticket booth for the Ferris wheel. As they went to pay their fees the owner shook his head.<p>

"Only four people can go in a carriage at a time." The owner said, "If you all want to go on then you'll have to take different carriages."

"Ohh…" Orihime sighed disappointedly, "It won't be fair if not all of us can go on together."

"How come only up to four people can go on at once?" Renji asked.

"Weight restrictions." The owner replied.

"Weight?"

"Yeah, if there's too much weight then the carriage could fall. It's not worth the risk to have more than four people in a carriage at once."

"Do any of us look obese to you?" questioned an annoyed Renji, slightly missing the point.

"No, you don't." The owner replied. "But I've been told that muscle weighs more than fat, and that guy there is as big as all outdoors." He said as he pointed at the muscle-bound Chad.

"He's got a point." Ichigo added as Renji looked up at Chad defeatedly.

"It runs in the family ." Chad said apologetically

"So what do we do now?" Ichigo asked.

"We could go and buy some snacks." Ishida suggested, "Then we can just go and find somewhere else to watch the display."

"Yeah, I am a little hungry." Said Orihime with a slightly embarrassed smile.

"It's settled then. Let's go and find a food stall."

As everyone nodded and set of in the general direction of the stalls, Ichigo grabbed for Rukia's arm.

"Huh?" she said as she turned around to see what was wrong.

"I've got an idea." Ichigo said. "How about we go on the Ferris wheel while the other go and get some snacks?"

"Oh, well…" Started Rukia as she looked round to see if the others were out of earshot.

"Come on," Ichigo said with a sly smile, "They won't even know we're gone."

Rukia turned back around with a grin.

"Okay."

* * *

><p>Rukia and Ichigo were soon climbing inside one of the carriages. Ichigo sat down in the middle of the seat whilst Rukia sat nearest to the window between him and her rabbit. The wheel started moving as they were getting comfortable.<p>

"You know, you're lucky it was only a weight restriction." Ichigo said.

"What do you mean?" Rukia asked.

"If it was a height restriction instead then you'd have had no chance of getting on." He joked.

"Idiot!" she replied as she gave him a swift punch to the side of his leg.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right!"

"It's been a while since you've hit me." Ichigo laughed, "I was starting to miss it."

The disapproving expression on Rukia's face broke into a smile.

"I can never stay angry at you."

"That's good." He smiled, "Because I'm never going to stop with the midget jokes."

"Well your going to have a very sore leg then!" she said as she hit him again.

"Ow! Hey! I didn't say anything that time!"

Rukia let out a small giggle.

* * *

><p>"Attention! The fireworks display will be start shortly." A speaker announced. "We hope that you enjoy the show."<p>

"Good, I'm getting tired of waiting." Renji said as he sat on a nearby bench and opened a bag of peanuts.

"Hmm. Where did Ichigo and Rukia go?" Ishida wondered out loud.

"They're not here?" Renji asked as he looked around.

Chad scanned across the heads of nearby people for ginger hair, "They must still be at the Ferris wheel."

"Maybe they went on it without us?" Ishida suggested as he took a slurp of his drink.

"What? Why'd they do that?" Renji inquired angrily, "I thought we agreed that we'd go and find somewhere else to stand and watch!"

"Oohhh! That's so romantic!" Orihime said dreamily.

"Huh?" Renji said with a confused look.

"Oh yeah, you weren't here earlier." Ishida remembered. "Ichigo won at that coconut shy stall. Rukia liked one of the toy rabbits that was a prize so he got her it as a present."

"So?"

"So maybe there's something going on between them."

"Oh…" Renji said with a disappointed expression. "Well… I'll just have to go and find out then!" he decided as he stood up.

"You'll have to climb up quite far." Ishida said as he took another sip of his drink, "If they went on the Ferris wheel then they'll still be on it."

"Oh. Yeah." Renji sat back down.

"Sorry we didn't tell you earlier." Orihime apologized.

"Nahh it's fine." Renji said in a dismissive.

"..."

Chad thought he'd ought to break the tension.

"I won a parakeet." he said.

* * *

><p>"This is actually pretty nice." Ichigo said as he looked out across the fairground.<p>

"Yeah, it is." Rukia nodded as she stared out of the carriage window, absent-mindedly fiddling with her hair.

He looked down at her and followed her shoulders nervously with his eyes. The familiar feeling of having butterflies in his stomach was back in full force.

"You know…" he said as he put his arm around her, "It's pretty cold up here."

"That was awful!" She laughed.

Rukia looked round to see Ichigo smiling down at her.

"But I'll let you off for the terrible chat-up line because you're going to be my substitute for a hot-water bottle, aren't you?" she asked as she batted her eyelashes.

"Yeah I suppose I am."

He smiled contently as she snuggled up against him. He was quiet for a few moments, capturing the feeling of her warm body cuddled up against him into his memory.

"Rukia?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still want to know what I was trying to tell you up in the umbrellas?"

"Sure."

He closed his eyes. The butterflies in his stomach were dancing like angry tribesmen now. He knew that there was something there between them, she definitely felt something towards him. Nevertheless his mind was apprehensive, but in his heart he was sure that now was the time to tell her. It was now or never.

"I love you."

"…"

"…Rukia?"

She wasn't saying anything.

"…"

He felt her pull away from him. Was he was wrong? Maybe she didn't feel the same about him?

He nervously opened his eyes to see Rukia staring at him with her big violet eyes. Her mouth was slightly agape, a look of surprise thrown across her face.

"…Really?"

"Yeah."

He slowly turned his head away from her and took his arm off her shoulder. He could feel his stomach tie knots in itself. He had been so certain. But she didn't feel the same way about him, she couldn't have. She wouldn't have looked so shocked if she did.

"…"

He ran his hands through his hair before bringing them to his face and burying his head in them. A desperate sense of despair was slowly coursing through his body. He felt like he had just ruined everything that they once had.

All the times they'd smiled, laughed, argued, fallen out, and made up back up again. All the things they'd been through together and all the memories they shared. He'd ruined all of them.

He squinted his eyes shut and groaned inside. He'd been so stupid…

"Ichigo…"

He'd lost everything because of three little words…

She pulled his hands away from his face and held them in hers.

…Three stupid little words…

"…I love you…"

…that had ruined their friendship.

"…I love you too, Ichigo."

She reached up to his face and softly stroked it with her hand.

What had she said? He turned his head and opened his eyes, both stinging a little.

She was looking at him, gently smiling; a tear rolling down her cheek.

Had he heard her right the first time?

"What?"

"I said I love you too."

"You love me?" he asked, his mind numb.

"Yeah."

"Then… why are you crying?"

"Because I'm happy, you idiot!" she cried out as she pulled him into an embrace.

She…loved him…?

"!"

She loved him!

It suddenly dawned on him what she was saying. He was right after all, he thought as he felt the knots in his stomach loosen. Ichigo looked down at the small shinigami whose head was buried in his chest. He moved his head a little closer to hers; the clean fragrance of her hair filled his airways as he breathed in.

"Rukia?"

"…Yeah?"

She looked up to meet his eyes; Ichigo wore a quiet smile on his face as he gazed passionately back into her big, violet irises. He glanced down at her tender lips before closing his eyes. She smiled lovingly as he leant in to kiss her.

Their lips met as a soft orange light flooded the carriage, the first firework erupting in the backdrop. A series of booms echoed across the fairground and the crowds below gave a distant cheer at the onset of the fireworks display.

For one night, his life was perfect.

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So there you go everyone, I hope you've enjoyed my first venture into the world of fan ficition. Whether you loved it or hated it, drop off a review and tell me your opinion. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last two chapters, your support is appreciated :)


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